By Bruce Johnson
Native American tribes (also known as First Nations) are actually many different cultures. So, there aredifferent types of Native American clowns.
The Cheyenne tribe has Contrary clowns. They would walk about the camp ontheir hands, ride horses backwards, shoot arrows back over their shoulder, anddo many other things wrong. When they came to a stream, they would take off onemoccasin, and then hold up the bare leg as they hopped through the water. Intime of battle, they would revert to doing things the normal way. The othertribes feared the Contraries the most, because they were the most skilledwarriors. Contrary clowns are shown in the movie Little Big Man.
The Hopi tribe has several different clown characters. Their appearance isthe easiest to find because they are depicted in Kachina dolls. They all painttheir bodies. The Koshari or Hano clowns paint their body and face in black andwhite horizontal stripes. Their costume is a loincloth and a striped hat withtwo tall thin horns. The Koyemsi (mudhead) clowns wear a spherical felt maskwith gourds attached to make it lumpy. Then they paint their bodies and the maskwith red clay. The junction between the mask and their body is hidden by abandana, called a ruff, tied around their neck. They frequently wear a skirt,although they sometimes wear a loincloth and other times pants & shirt.Pictures of these characters can be found in books about Kachinas. Barton Wrightwrote two of the best. They are Hopi Kachinas - The Complete Guide to CollectingKachina Dolls, and Clowns of the Hopi - Tradition Keepers and DelightMakers.
I believe that most of the Native American clowns were masked. I've seenmasks of other tribes at the Royal British Columbia Museum, in Victoria, Canada,and at the Native American Museum, in New York City, USA. I don't remember thename of the character or the tribe, but one of the Mexican tribes has an old manclown character. They use goat hair to create a beard and gray hair for themask. That mask is one of the ones in the museum in New York.
Here are a couple of things I've found interesting about the Native Americanclowns. Many of the tribes believe their clowns have the power to cure certaindiseases. Western medicine is just discovering that humor and laughter doescause beneficial physiological changes.
In many tribes, the clowns have a teaching function. Some tribes believe thatlaughter opens you up to what the spirits want you to learn. So, before some ofthe ceremonies could begin, the clowns had to get everyone laughing. A visitorfrom another tribe might try to prevent the ceremony from taking place byrefusing to laugh. Quite often, the clowns are in charge of teaching theceremonies to the children. The clowns also were in charge of policing thetribe. If somebody were involved in inappropriate behavior, for example gettingdrunk, the clowns would perform a skit satirizing that person's behavior. Thepublic ridicule was often enough to end the behavior.
The Native American clowns often played an important role in the religiouslife of the tribe. When some of the tribes converted to Christianity, theycreated ceremonies portraying events from the Bible. In at least one tribe, theclowns play the people who demanded that Christ be crucified. Underneath theirmask, these clowns keep a cross clinched between their teeth as a symbol oftheir true dedication to Christ while pretending the opposite.
To understand the clown characters of Northwest First Nations, you have tounderstand their culture because the clowns play an important role within theirsociety.
This explanation is based on conversations with master carver George David, avisit to the Umista Cultural Center in Alert Bay, BC, and trips to other museumsand art galleries. George is a member of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth tribe. Anymisinformation is the result of my own misunderstanding.
Northwest tribes consider their history to be vital. It is the basis fortheir status and honor. However, they had no written language to use to recordit. Their history was preserved through three mediums: art, dance, and oraltradition.
There are some dances, like the Welcoming Dance, that are owned by everyone.Anybody can dance them. However, most songs and dances are considered valuablepersonal property. Nobody would dare perform a dance if they could not provethat they had the right to do it. Dances were often inherited, and a dancerwould announce that they could do a particular dance because they are the son of…,who was the son of …, who was the son of … Sometimes the chain ofinheritance would go back eight or more generations to the person who hadcreated the dance. Some dances were inherited through the father, and othersinherited through the mother. When a woman married into a different clan ortribe, she took along some of her clan's dances as her dowry. Sometimesmarriages were arranged to obtain ownership of desirable dances. When a fatherretires from dancing, he chooses which of his sons will inherit specific dancesthat he owns.
A very important element of transferring rights was an event called thePotlatch. Nothing was legal until it had been announced during a Potlatch. Thecollected group served as the notary public. Everyone there pledged that theywould remember all that they heard. Granting of names, initiation intoadulthood, marriages, rights to perform dances, transfer of power, and otherbusiness were all announced during the potlatch. The host clan would invitetheir neighbors to attend as witnesses. After a potlatch, when somebody claimeda right they had been granted, the others might reply, "yes, you own thatright because I was there when it was given to you. I remember that you havethat right."
If outsiders know anything about a potlatch, it is usually about theelaborate gifts given to the guests at the end of the ceremony. The gifts arepayments given to the guests to insure that they will remember what transpired.When a guest touches a gift to accept it, they are giving their approval toeverything that was announced and pledging to remember it. The guest thenbecomes a paid witness.
The potlatch is also a teaching event. The history of the host clan isexplained through dance and song. Important lessons are also taught through thedances. For example, in one dance Bak’ was, the Wild Man, tries to capturechildren wandering alone in the forest. If he can catch them, he will take themaway. This dance teaches the children not to go into the forest unaccompanied.That is an important lesson for a tribe living in the wilderness.
Since what happens at a potlatch is so important, it is vital that everyonepays attention and discipline is maintained. In some tribes, the Nulth-Ma clownserved as the sergeant of arms. A potlatch would be held in a building called aLong House. The guests would sit around the sides of the room, and there wouldbe a fire in the center. If a child got the giggles or misbehaved in anotherway, the clown might single them out and make them sit all alone by the firewhere everyone could see their shame. The Nulth-Ma could ask people who werebehaving inappropriately to leave. The Nulth-Ma also carried a two-foot-longpaddle to use in disciplining unruly guests. Sometimes a host would secretlybribe a guest to misbehave so the clown would beat them as a warning to othersabout what could happen to them.
A modern potlatch may last 24 hours, but in past times a potlatch could lastfor many days. It would be hard to concentrate about two or three in themorning. Then the host would send in the clowns. The clowns would shift frommaintaining discipline to being entertainers. They would get the people to laughto reenergize them. They would let the people relax their concentration. Thenrefreshed, the guests were ready to continue with the important business athand.
The Nulth-Ma Clown of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Nation wears a mask carved from cedar wood. The mask might havefalse hair made from cedar bark. A distinguishing characteristic of this clownis the large nose. The character’s name loosely translates into English as"Big Nose." This clown often has a wide grin. His features are paintedin red, black, and white, or are left the natural color of the cedar. Someclowns would communicate using a whistle held in their mouth behind the mask.
Nulth-Ma Clown Masks (The one on the right was carved by George David.)
The routines the clowns performed would vary. George David told me hisbrother would fill the big nose of his mask with raw clams. Then he would pickhis nose and offer what he found to others. Something else they might do isusing a blanket to create a two-person horse.
The Nulth-Ma clown was not the only clown character of the Northwest Tribes.The name of the character varies by tribe. The Kwakwaka 'wabuc tribe ofVancouver Island calls him Noohlmahl. It is also known as Nutamat.
The Royal British Museum, in Victoria, BC, and the Umista Cultural Center, inAlert Bay, BC, both have masks described as "laughers." These are pureclown characters. Their function is to make people laugh. At the Umista CulturalCenter, I was told, "our people believe that laughter is a gift from thespirits. Failure to use a gift is a sign of ingratitude and the ability to usethat gift may be taken away. Therefore, it is important to us to includelaughter in our ceremonies."
The Potlatch is the most important event in the tribe’s cultures, butclowns or humor might be a part of other ceremonies and events. George Davidtold me of a time when a mask was carved without a nose. In its place was ahole. Each man participating in the event carved a nose that would fit into themask's hole. Each man took a turn donning the mask under the cover of a blanket.They would attach their carved nose to the mask. Then they would cast aside theblanket to see how hard they could get their companions to laugh.
The Burke Museum at the University of Washington has a mask withinterchangeable lips. It is similar to the mask George David described. I don’tknow if it was used for comedy.
The Anglo Saxon society tends to equate material possessions with wealth. TheNorthwest tribes considered honor and respect to be far more valuable. One wayto obtain honor was by giving physical gifts to others. The more you were ableto give, the more honor you had. Of course, others wanted to obtain honor aswell, so they would try to give you back just as much if not more. Another wayto obtain honor was by giving of yourself to others. Acts of service earned yourespect. George David told me that Caring Clowns who work to relieve the pain ofhospital patients would be highly respected by his people and be considered verywealthy.
Clowning in the Northwest goes back several centuries. It predates the firstcontact between the native tribes and explorers from Europe. Much of it wouldseem different to us, and some of it would seem similar. One of the chalk talkcartoons that I draw is a body of a frog that turns into the picture of the faceof a prince when the paper is turned upside down. In a gallery in Victoria, BC,I saw a carved mask that was the face of a man. When the mask is turned upsidedown, it becomes the body of a frog.
